Recyling: Sundrop we drink today could become fabric we wear

By Nan Kirlin

Published: Friday, April 11, 2014 at 04:49 PM.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend our annual conference for the recycling industry. It is a large gathering of industry professionals in the private and public sector and vendors from all aspects of recycling.

Eddie Ingle and Fred Indermauer spoke to us about their company Unifi, located in Yadkinville. Unifi is a polyester and nylon fiber manufacturer, and known to us in the recycling field because the company produces REPREVE – a fabric made totally from recycled plastic bottles.

Unifi has a process to collect, clean, shred, pelletize, then heat and extrude this plastic into threads, which is then woven into REPREVE.

REPREVE was one of the sponsors of the last X-Games, and their fabric is used by Nike and Patagonia. They employ close to 2,000 people.

Ingle and Indermauer said they depend on recycled materials to continue their manufacturing, and when everyone is screaming about the need for more jobs, recycling is a place that jobs and “Made in America” can happen.

They also discussed the “Green Fence” of China. All remanufacturers are in need of the most pure, uncontaminated forms of whatever materials they are reusing. Whether we are talking scrap metal, newsprint, office paper, cardboard or plastics, all of these materials hold their value if not dirtied with food waste, grease, baby diapers or personal waste.

It seems as though Americans and some Europeans have been shipping contaminated bales of recyclables to China. China is the world’s leading user of recycled materials. China had been accepting our less-than-optimal materials, as there was still enough value in most, but they were land-filling close to 25 percent of our shipments.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend our annual conference for the recycling industry. It is a large gathering of industry professionals in the private and public sector and vendors from all aspects of recycling.

Eddie Ingle and Fred Indermauer spoke to us about their company Unifi, located in Yadkinville. Unifi is a polyester and nylon fiber manufacturer, and known to us in the recycling field because the company produces REPREVE – a fabric made totally from recycled plastic bottles.

Unifi has a process to collect, clean, shred, pelletize, then heat and extrude this plastic into threads, which is then woven into REPREVE.

REPREVE was one of the sponsors of the last X-Games, and their fabric is used by Nike and Patagonia. They employ close to 2,000 people.

Ingle and Indermauer said they depend on recycled materials to continue their manufacturing, and when everyone is screaming about the need for more jobs, recycling is a place that jobs and “Made in America” can happen.

They also discussed the “Green Fence” of China. All remanufacturers are in need of the most pure, uncontaminated forms of whatever materials they are reusing. Whether we are talking scrap metal, newsprint, office paper, cardboard or plastics, all of these materials hold their value if not dirtied with food waste, grease, baby diapers or personal waste.

It seems as though Americans and some Europeans have been shipping contaminated bales of recyclables to China. China is the world’s leading user of recycled materials. China had been accepting our less-than-optimal materials, as there was still enough value in most, but they were land-filling close to 25 percent of our shipments.

If you follow any international news, you would remember that China has horrible issues with air pollution and has put more emphasis on protecting their environment.

About two years ago, the “Green Fence” went up in China, and they began refusing shipment of our contaminated recyclables. Shipments sailed over and then shipments sailed back. We were left with our own waste-infused recyclables. So, what does this mean to you and me?

Unless we do a better job of responsibly recycling, we can cripple the recyclables markets. On the other hand, when China refuses our materials, we need to consider that these materials maybe should stay on our shores and we become the remanufacturers. REPREVE is doing this.

But for the company to compete on an international market, they must get clean plastic. And they need more.

We have manufacturing happening here in this state. We need to support their efforts, and if you are a Sundrop consumer, Sundrop has been on board with REPREVE since its inception. A few years ago, Sundrop decided that since they are utilizing plastic bottles to distribute their products, they wanted to team up with a company that would find a way to prevent this plastic from flowing into the waste stream. It is a beautiful circle of life – plastic bottles for water and soda recycled into fibers for textiles – the backbone of North Carolina.

My take away from Ingle and Indermauer’s talk was powerful: the more plastic we recycle, the more threads Unifi makes, the more fabric REPREVE makes into products that we will wear and enjoy. Join me in continuing to recycle all plastics – no #6 or Styrofoam … more on the evils of Styrofoam in a later article – keep your single stream recycling cans limited to just clean recyclables. Do not put food waste, animal feces, grease, baby diapers or personal waste into our recycling. Let’s provide the best feed stock we can to keep 2,000 employees working in North Carolina.

Nan Kirlin is recycling coordinator for Gaston County. Her column runs on Sundays.